Book: I Am Spam
Written by Larry O Dean (Fractal Edge Press)
Reviewed by Erick Mertz

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It is likely that you've never heard of poet/songwriter/humorist savant Larry O. Dean, not counting Michael Moore, the pride of Flint Michigan. However, looking at his Chicago art scene resume and his prolific pop recording career, the relative obscurity of this Glen Campbell channeling raconteur seems unlikely. Dean is the deliriously talented genius behind bands like the Post Office and The Me Decade, a sprawling mid-west solo performance calendar, as well as delightful tomes of poetry like Identity Theft For Dummies and now, I Am Spam, recently published by Fractal Edge Press.

As Dean's biography will tell you, he is a card carrying college graduate, a non academic by choice, and by his poetry reflects that fact very clearly. He is of the rare school in poetry that gives the medium a measure of fun and humor to augment its poignancy. The chapbook I Am Spam derives its inspiration from the least likely of all muses: the muse of Spam email. One can't help but imagine the poet jotting his notes in the crossword margins, on his already messy desktop blotter, as the sea of meaningless banner ad speak spurs him on. Dean's work might seem flip in places, but that plays out in his favor. Poems like "Stop Paying Too Much" and "Online Cheating Wives" were never meant to change the vernacular or reinvent the verb - they were meant to drum up a cask of much needed levity, something they're wildly successful doing.

© 2005 - Erick Mertz